Zipcar To Launch One-Way Rides

As reported by GigaOm: There have generally been two options for car-sharing companies throughout the world: allow one-trips or don’t.

Later this year, Zipcar plans to join the former camp, and on Friday announced it will launch one-way trips in select markets in the fall using the Honda Fit cars.

One-way driving options can be a pretty convenient perk, enabling drivers to pick up a car in the city and drop it off at, say, the airport, before a big trip. It just adds flexibility, particular in a city with good public transportation and other mobility options.

BMW’s car sharing service DriveNow has offered one-way trips since it launched using BMW’s all-electric ActiveEs. Daimler’s car2go network also offers one-way trips with its fleet of Smart fortwos and electric fortwos.

Because most electric cars have shorter ranges than gas cars and need a designated charging station (rather than any old gas station you can find), one-way trips can offer a more bite-sized, and more predictable path, which can be a good fit for using EVs.

Zipcar’s new one-way cars will use the logos you see above to indicate they can be dropped off at a different location than they were picked up.

Zipcar is the largest car sharing network in the U.S. and was bought by rental car company Avis at the beginning of 2013.